 Water
governance depends not only on specific institutions
that are mandated to govern water but also the overall
governance context in which water issues are placed.
If a country lacks essential democratic institutions,
like the freedom of speech and the right to organise,
the promotion of participatory approaches in water development
programmes gets compromised. If citizens cannot access
basic information on water quantity and quality, it
seriously curtails their chances of halting environmentally
unsound water projects or to hold relevant government
agencies accountable.
The prospects for improved and sustained water reform
are also linked to other factors such as macro-economics,
demographics, and social and political instability in
a country. For example, global market conditions and
trade regimes can affect crop choices and thus also
have serious implications for water use and demands
in agriculture. This emphasises the importance for any
water reform to also take into account social, economic
and political conditions external to the water sector
that have both direct and indirect impacts on how water
is being used and governed.
The recent centre-staging of governance as the most
important challenge to improve water management and
services provision has not been matched by developing
robust indicators that can monitor and assess trends
for national water governance reform. Water governance
indicators are intended to be useful to national stakeholders
as a tool for priority setting, and for strengthening
the responsiveness of institutions and processes to
the water needs of water users.
Thus, among other things, more needs to be known about:
- The type of governance that is favourable to improved
water resources management and water services provisions.
- Those governance components which are more critical
to address than others to improve water supply and
sanitation coverage as well the sustainable use of
water resources
The development and application of appropriate water
governance indicators will make a major contribution
to the type of water policy interventions that are required
by governments and the whole development community.
The links and resources found here highlight, among
other things, some of the general attempts to assess
overall governance. They also bring attention to aggregated
efforts made to monitor and assess reform in the water
sector. |
